She raised her spinning head. The somebody was striding out of the mist, carrying a shotgun. It was pointed past Tesla, towards the wounded Blessedm'n.

"Walk away, Tesla," the shotgun wielder said.

She narrowed her eyes, to better make out the face of her savior.

"D'Amour?"

He gave her a wearily wolfish grin. "None other," he said. "Now, do you want to just walk this way?"

The hammerer still stood within striking distance of Tesla, plainly eager to do her damage. "Move him," D'Amour told Zury. "Or else."

"Bartho," the Blessedm'n said. "Let her pass."

Whining like a frustrated dog, the hammerer stepped out of Tesla's path, and she stumbled down the slope to where D'Amour stood.

"Gamaliel?" Harry said. The black stick-man turned his seared head in D'Amour's direction. "You explain to the Brothers Grimm here that I've got sights on this gun that can see through fog. You understand what I'm telling you?" Gamaliel nodded. "And if any of you move in the next ten minutes I'm going to blow the old fuck's head off. You don't think I can?" He took a bead on Zury. Gamaliel whimpered. "Yeah, you get it," he said. "I can kill him from a long way down the hill with this. A long, long way. Okay?"

It wasn't Gamaliel who spoke, but his obese brother.

"O-key," he said, raising his fat-fingered hands. "No shoot, o-key? We not move. 0-key? You not shoot. 0-key?"

"O-key do-key," D'Amour said. He glanced round at Tesla. "You fit to run?" he whispered.

"I'll do my best."

"Go on then," D'Amour replied, slowly backing away.

Tesla started off down the slope, slowly enough to keep D'Amour in view while he retreated from Zury and the brothers. He kept retreating until he could no longer be seen, then he turned, and raced down to join Tesla.

"We got to make this quick," he said.

"Can you do it?"

"Can I do what?"

"Pick Zury off in the fog?"

"Hell no. But I'm betting they won't risk it. Now let's get going."

It was easier descending than climbing, even though Tesla's head felt as though it were splitting. Within ten minutes the fog ahead of them brightened, and a short while after they stumbled into the bright summer air,

"I don't think we're out of trouble yet," Harry said.

"You think they'll come after us?"

"I'm damn sure they will," he said quickly. "Bartho's probably making crosses for us right now."

The image of Lucien flashed into her head and a sob escaped her. She put her hand to her mouth, to stop another, but tears came anyway, pouring down.

"They're not going to get us," D'Amour said, "I won't let them."

"It's not that," Tesia said.

"What is it then?"

She shook her head. "Later," she said, and turning from him started on down the slope. The tears half-blinded her, and several times she stumbled, but she pushed her exhausted limbs to their limits, until she made the relative safety of the tree line. Even then she only slowed her pace a little, glancing back now and again to be certain she hadn't lost D'Amour.

At last, with both of them gasping so hard they could barely speak, the trees began to thin out, and a mingling of sounds came drifting up towards them. The rush of Unger's Creek was one. The murmuring roar of the crowd was another. And the thump and blare of the town band as it led the parade through the streets of Everville was a third. "It's not quite Mozart," Tesla thought to Raul. "Sorry." Her tenant didn't reply.

"Raul?" she said, this time aloud.

"Something wrong?" D'Amour wanted to know.

She hushed him with a look, and turned her attention inward again.

"Raul-?" she said. Again, there was no answer. Concerned now, she closed her eyes and went looking for him. Two or three times during her travels he had hidden from her in this fashion, out of anger or anxiety, and she'd been obliged to coax him out. She took her thoughts to the divide between his territory and hers, calling his name as she went. There was still no response.

A sickening suspicion rose up in her.

"Answer me, Raul," she said. She was again met with silence, so she crossed over into the space he occupied.

She knew the instant she did so that he'd gone. When she'd trespassed here on previous occasions his presence had been all-pervasive, even when she hadn't been able to make him speak to her. She'd felt his essence, as somet ing utterly unlike her, occupying a space which most people lived and died believing theirs and only theirs: Their minds. Now there was nothing. No challenge, no complaint, no wit, no sob.

"What's wrong?" D'Amour said, studying her face.

"Raul," she said. "He's gone."

She knew when it had happened. That moment of agony and temporary madness at the threshold had marked his departure, her mind convulsing as he was ripped out of it.

She opened her eyes. The world around her-the trees, the sky, D'Amour, the sound of creek and crowd and band EVERV"ILLE 377 were almost overwhelming after the emptiness where Raul had been.

"Are you sure?" D'Amour said.

"I'm sure."

"Where the hell did he go?"

She shook her head. "He warned me, when we were close to the shore. He said he was losing his grip. I thought he meant-"

"He was going crazy?"

"Yes." She growled at her own stupidity. "Christ! I let him go. How could I have let that happen?"

"Don't beat yourself up because you didn't think of everything. Only God thinks of everything."

"Don't get Christian on me," Tesla said, her voice thick. "That's the last fucking thing I want right now."

"We're going to need help from somewhere," D'Amour said, casting his eyes back up the mountain. "You know what they're doing up there, don't you?" "Waiting for the lad."

"Right.

"And Kissoon's head of the welcoming committee."

"You know about Kissoon?" D'Amour said, plainly surprised.

So was Tesla. "You know about him too?"

"I've been following him across the country for the last two months."

"How did you find out he was here?"

"A woman you know. Maria Nazareno."

"How'd you come to find her?"

11 e und me, the way she found you."

Tesla put her hand to her face, wiping away some of the sweat and dirt.

"She's dead, isn't she?" "I'm afraid she is. Kissoon traced her."

"We're a lethal pair, D'Amour. Everybody we touch-" She let the thought go unfinished. Simply turned from him and continued her descent through the trees.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Sit. Think."

"Mind if I come with you?"

"Have you got some last-minute maneuver up your sleeve?"

"No.

"Good. Because I'm sick of believing there's a damn ing we can do about any of ffiis."

"I didn't say that."

"No, but I did," Tesla said, marching on down the slope. "They're coming, D'Amour, whether we like it or not. The door's open and they're coming through it. I think it's about time we made our peace with that."

Harry was about to argue the point, but before he could find the words he remembered the conversation he'd had with Norma. The world could change, she'd said, but it can't end. And where was the harm in change?

was it so dandy the way it was?

He looked up through the swaying branches at the gleaming blue sky, while the music of the town band came to him on a balmy breeze, and he had his answer. "The world's just fine the way it is," he said, loud enough for Tesla to hear it. She didn't answer him. Just marched on down to the creek and waded over. "Just fine," he said to himself, asserting with that his inalienable right to defend it. "Just fine."

After her literal fashion, Phoebe had expected to find a door awaiting her at the end of her trek. It would more than likely be fancier than any door she'd seen, and she wasn't so nzffve as to expect a bell and a welcome mat, but to all intents and purposes it would be a door. She would stand before it, turn the handle, and with a majestic sigh it would open before her.